Cloud
by witchhuntress
Summary: What if our beloved Ghost Hunt characters live in Edo period, 17th century in particular? How will they solve their cases, and what will their lives turn out to be? PLEASE READ WARNING AND A/N BEFORE FIRST CHAPTER. CHAPTER 3 UPDATED!
1. First Cloud

**WARNING: Prostitution implied**

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><p>DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ghost Hunt characters. Even though I'm using facts, explanations that cannot be found in any reference come from my own cognition.<p>

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><p><strong>Terms beforehand;<strong>

**Oiran= a woman (high in rank) offering services from pleasure to other forms of entertainment like dance, music, fashion, poetry, and etcetera. They tie their obis in the front allegedly because it's easy to untie that way, but married women before also used to do that. The tying of the obi at the front by the oiran is actually a metaphor for borrowing a 'wife' for the night. Geishas actually originated from oirans; this explains the similarity in their service (except for the pleasure service since Geishas don't actually offer such, but realistically, it is still uncertain [some might just have hidden the fact]).**

**Uchikake=an outergarment, as a coat, that's worn over a kimono**

**Nakagi=padded layers of kimono**

**Obi=a sash**

**Kohgai, Ohgushi, and Maebira=hair accessories**

**Dogeza=a type of bow that can mean, "Sorry for the trouble." It can be used for apology to that of a higher rank.**

**Ori=cage**

**Hime=Princess**

**Yoshiwara=enclosed pleasure district in Edo, old Tokyo. It consists of a lot of pleasure houses. **

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_**One day it happened that a frog from the ocean came to the well━he must have been a tourist. He came into the well, introduced himself to the frog of the well, and said, "I come from the ocean."**_

_**Naturally, the frog of the well asked, "Ocean? What do you mean by ocean? What is it?"**_

_**And the frog from the ocean said, "It is very difficult to describe, sir, because you have never left this well it seems. It is so small. But still, I will try."**_

_**The frog of the well laughed. He said, "Nobody has ever heard about anything bigger than this well. How big is your ocean?'"**_

_**And the frog of the well jumped one third of the space of the well and said, "This much?"**_

_**And the frog from the ocean laughed. He said, "No, sir."**_

_**So the frog from the well jumped two thirds of the space and said, "This much?"**_

_**Then he jumped the whole space and said, "Now it must be exactly like this well."**_

_**But the frog from the ocean said, "It is impossible to describe. The difference is not of quantity, it is of quality. It is vast! It is not circumscribed!"**_

_**The frog from the well said, "You seem to be either a madman or a philosopher or a liar. You get out from here! Don't talk nonsense!"**_

_**~A Sufi Story~**_

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><p><strong>XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~<strong>

"Remember to act appropriately," the haughty voice of Missus resonates to my ears as we traverse the rowdy hallway of the Orihime household. "You are very lucky, you know that? You're the only girl who became an oiran without the initiation as of yet! Why, ever since you appeared as a substitute for Ume-oiran in the promenade a week ago, a lot of men have restlessly shouted for you―making you an oiran without official appointment of this house as of yet! Oh dear me, it seems like hell is calling for you already!"

I bite my lip to stop from retorting. The Missus has a foul tongue, and she doesn't even realize it. She's probably in her mid-40s. Her hair is neatly combed back and fixed into a bun with a silver pin―making her head look like an inverted straw hat. Probably remnants of stress and incessant frowning, wrinkles adorn the corners of her eyes and mouth. Seemingly easy to topple by the zephyr, she's rather small for a domineering woman in Yoshiwara. At least, that's what I can recall of how she looked like when I last saw her.

"Mark my words, Sora," she chides. "Your very first customer is a member of a well-esteemed group, so be sure to apologize for your inexperience, especially when he points out your errors."

"Yes, ma'am," I reply, nodding obediently.

Wearing a black uchikake with lotus flowers over a cherry-colored nakagi (decorated with twigs of plum blossoms) that is secured by a goldfish brocade obi bow in my front, I tread the noisy hallway carefully. I feel so burdened―heavy with weight monsters named kohgai, ohgushi, and maebira on my head that I feel as if I am carrying the whole world in my procession.

However, there is no escaping it; it is time for my 'initiation,' as they call it.

I'm still young, a sixteen year old girl who has millions of places to explore rather than this one I'm currently in.

I...never wanted this job, but...it was the only offered opportunity to survive. I was going to starve if Missus did not see me and proffered the five-year-old me a dwelling place.

I cannot run away too because I cannot cover my tracks.

Others may call it a dirty, shameful, and disgusting place: mirroring the lives of the people in it. But, who cares?

Ever since my parents died and I was left alone to face the cruel and unimaginable world, I stopped caring for where I should go and what I should become. So, as a child, I clung unto an opportunity that could just help me survive.

I've stopped dreaming ever since.

In truth, I am merely becoming an animal―easily satisfied when fed.

_Besides, how could someone care?_

Everyone is selfish, and I am surrounded by selfish people flamboyantly showing off everyday. Men are greedy, their up-to-the-brim filled cups wasted away and shoved for more.

It all makes me sick.

And yet, I am embracing the poison that shall imprison me to an endless hellfire. What I'm about to start doing will become my new way of life now, for eternity.

I sigh quietly.

Missus squeezes my arm━a sign for me to stop walking. We must be outside the allotted room already.

As a last warning, she whispers to me, "Remember this too: _**never take off the blindfold**_."

I nod willfully, and I am hauled inside the unknown.

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><p><strong>XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~<strong>

It has been a tradition for supposedly soon-to-be-oirans to be blindfolded during the initiation―the day when one pleases her very first customer. I don't know about other pleasure quarters in Yoshiwara, but this certain ceremony has always been observed in Orihime. Since I have become an oiran 'officially' because of 'public (mostly men) affirmation' and without even an ounce of experience, I have my initiation rather late...

But then, I don't really care much about it.

I'll be doing the same thing over and over again everyday of my life until the end of me.

_So, who would ever care?_

That's why, when the shoji door was slammed shut behind me, I manage the barest flinch. (I've come to know in my attendant years that slightly frightened girls are appealing to customers, so I guess I should at least try to pretend to be appealing.)

The darkness that envelops my vision does not really bother me. It's probably very dark outside anyway; the sun has set when I finished donning my cumbersome raiment. Pretending I'm rattled and desperate to find something to cleave on in the dark, I move my hands up laterally. A swish of my head to the left brings the brightness of a distant light through the red fabric that composes my blindfold; a light probably emanates from a lit lantern afar.

"You're here," a mellifluous voice, that of a young man's, echoes to my soul and brings me relief.

I have been wishing the first man won't be so cranky and old. But then, a young man isn't really harmless. Still, there's a difference.

Turning my body to where I can see the bright light, I bend my knees to the floor and bow respectfully.

"I am Sora," I say politely. "Please take care of me."

My real name is Mai Taniyama. But, of course, I cannot tell him that. There are rules to this place, and impersonality is one of them. We can have returning customers, but doters interrupting without pay are out of the question.

Real names must be kept secret because attachment is forbidden.

Sora...is a name Missus gave me because she said my eyes have an unreachable look. It has then reminded me of a life I can never have━like the sky. However, people don't usually see through this gloomy explanation of mine and think of something else―like a customer conceiving that the story behind my name has to do with me being limitless in the ability to please―that's totally revolting.

"What's your last name?" the young man inquires, and I bite my lip once more.

_Kami-sama! I definitely forgot to ask the Missus for a fake one!_

"I...I have no last name," I lie as smoothly as I can.

"Hn."

He emits a weird sound, but I can tell the skepticism laced in it. I just shrug it away nevertheless.

"What do you like me to do first, Mister...?" I trail off, inquiring for his name.

"Take off your blindfold," he commands airily, ignoring my hint of query.

I am almost scowling at the order, but then I swallow and hesitate as I remember Missus' last warning.

"That's―" I try to object.

"Take it off," he persists.

I cannot help but hold my mouth shut into a thin line. It is unusual that a customer will command a girl during her initiation to doff her blindfold. My Elder Sister has told me that the customers like blindfolded girls; it makes them feel so superior and excited. It is a gross reality that she pointed out.

An opposition of rules inside my head bombards me. But then, the Missus isn't in the room with me, and if it was a test of obedience, I'll pass it if I do what he wants. So, I guess it's best that I'm going to discard the obstacle to my eyes. It'll make my work easy...or something.

But, when I removed the fabric, I am unprepared to come face-to-face with a hellish creature.

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I scream as much as I can muster and instinctively fish out the mallet I secretly hid in my obi and subsequently hit the demon's face―which is red all over and has dark green horns sticking out from his forehead―with it.

The mallet was supposed to be a preventive measure; although, I knew it is heinous to strike a customer.

Anyway, consequently, the young man groans in pain, and then I hear a cracking sound. To my great confusion and astonishment, his horrifying face shatters and falls into pieces on the tatami mat that made up the floor. It is only then that I realized what he had on is a ceramic mask, very realistic and detailed that I haven't seen through the facade in the dimly lit room.

The face underneath makes me gasp. He's very young, a black-haired boy of about seventeen or eighteen. A lengthy-finger-taller than me, his sparkling eyes resemble that of an ocean (the shores of which I had traipsed upon when I was a lost child), staring at me disapprovingly. He massages his fringed forehead―a slightly red tint visible from the gaps in the dull illumination―and adjusts his ebony haori over his similar-colored kimono and hakama while frowning slightly.

_He's so beautiful..._I think to myself, transfixed.

I don't know why he put on a false front, but I can't really blame him. Even if I had a public affirmation as an oiran, Missus will never approve that I'll have my initiation with a radiant creature...The envy of her appointed oirans will probably stake me to death...and her favoritism will totally kick me out of reach.

_He might have been still flocked by the other girls at the oiran display downstairs if he didn't disguise himself..._

Then I gasp and cover my mouth in reminiscence. _I hit him! Oh my Kami-sama!_

Hastily, I kneel down in dogeza. "I'm very sorry, Mister! I didn't mean to hit you! I was just so shocked by your appearance; I don't know what came over me! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me for my inexperience at pleasing men!"

_Foolish Mai! How could I ruin his avocation of mask-bearing?_

Running footsteps audibly thud the hallway outside. The door to the room slams open, and a desperate yet similar mellifluous voice exclaims, "How could you, Noru? I've never thought you'll be here! I've overestimated you when you said you'll be doing a very good experiment―!"

_Noru? The last sound seems strange and different..._

I perk my head up to the newcomer and emit the heaviest gasp that evening.

_They're twins!_

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"What are you talking about, idiot lady killer?" The young man called 'Noru' frowns at his twin, who is wearing a blue and white ensemble; the difference to their personalities is evident with their clothes. Anyway, in the newcomer's hand is an identical demon mask which he probably took off while running.

"You know what I'm ta―" The newcomer's eyes drift upon me, kneeling on the floor. He examines me, winking dubiously, and gazes back at 'Noru.' "You weren't―?"

"Of course not, idiot."

"Oh...holy..."

I am deeply baffled, but I dare not speak. 'Noru' soughs and then glares at the grinning newcomer who spoke, "Just when I thought I could make you guilty and tease you about it...That Yasu-ninja! Lying to me, honestly."

"Jin," 'Noru' drawls in warning, and 'Jin' slightly puts his arms up and palms forward.

_Jin...?_

"Alright, alright," 'Jin' surrenders and then shrugs before flushing. "But really, Noru, why are you here? And why did you call her?"

'Jin' glances at me curiously.

"She's the dream seer Rin told me about," 'Noru' elucidates.

_Rin? He really says names oddly..._I just tilt my head. Also..._Dream seer? What's that? Me?_

'Jin' just blinks. "Really?"

Really bewildered, I finally blurt out loudly, "W-who are you?"

'Noru' turns to me as-a-matter-of-factly.

"I am Kazuya Shibuya, the _**head**_ _**of Yuurei Shinsengumi**__,_" he says coolly...

And I gape at him unbelievably.

Unknown to me, a cloud has already formed into a rung of an uncompleted staircase, towards what I thought was an unreachable sky.

**XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~**

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><p><strong>Yuurei =ghost<strong>

**Shinsengumi=****police in Kyoto established in 1863; its literal meaning is "newly chosen group." In this story, I am **_anachronistically _**borrowing the term for its definition in the late 19th century.**

**A/N: Ahhh...don't you just want to see how the boys would look like wielding katanas? After all, Edo period is a time for samurais and those great battles. I do not intend to make them bald in this story, though (since it seems like that was the fashion for the men in this period) lol. **

**I did not specify exactly what year of the Edo period this story would be, and I'm thinking of leaving it at that, the year unknown except for a hint of it occurring in 17th century. How will everything turn out? Many fun adventures next chapters. This is Naru-Mai-Gene btw ^^ **

**So, what do you think of this story? Any guesses of what roles the other Ghost Hunt characters shall portray? Heehee ^^ You may share your thoughts. ^^**

**P.S. EDIT: **Jin is actually Gene, and Noru is actually Noll. Rin is actually Lin. Since it's Mai's point of view, I am writing what Gene calls Naru/Noll as _**Noru**_and what Naru calls Gene as _**Jin **_and Lin as _**Rin**_. During early Edo period, English name spellings are still unfamiliar, and "L" is often mistaken as "R." Thereby, I am going by their nicknames' spellings as what Mai thought they are in the period and not as what we know in the modern world.


	2. Second Cloud

**A/N: Edited...^^**

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><p>DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ghost Hunt characters. Even though I'm using facts, explanations that cannot be found in any reference come from my own cognition.<p>

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><p><strong>Terms beforehand;<strong>

**Haori=an overcoat (sorry for not including this in last chap)**

**Hakama=trousers (sorry for not including this in last chap)**

**Nagajuban=a light kimono worn as an undergarment**

**The letter L=Japanese people usually have a hard time pronouncing this letter and usually replace 'l' in English words by 'r,' like 'love' into 'rabu.' The English alphabet isn't still prominent in Japan in the 17th century despite that a ship of Englishmen arrived at a port in Japan at that time (this is a time wherein there are no dictionaries and phrasebooks as of yet, so I can imagine that all they do is point and stuff lol).**

**Mochi=glutinous rice cake**

**Futon=traditional Japanese bed**

**Yatta='Hooray!' or 'I did it!'**

**Katana(with 's' for plural effect)=Japanese sword**

**Shoji=usually, made of paper (sorry for not including this in last chap)**

**XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~**

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><p><strong>Review<strong>

Really bewildered, I finally blurt out loudly, "W-who are you?"

'Noru' turns to me as-a-matter-of-factly.

"I am Kazuya Shibuya, the _**head**_ _**of Yuurei Shinsengumi**__,_" he says coolly...

And I gape at him unbelievably.

Unknown to me, a cloud has already formed into a rung of an uncompleted staircase, towards what I thought was an unreachable sky.

**End of Review**

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Jin glides inside the room and shuts the shoji door quietly.

I don't know what to say. I've...never heard of Yuurei and Shinsengumi put together as a group name.

_What kind of group do they have? _

"Jin." Shibuya-san turns to his twin.

"Hmm?" Jin sounds.

"Get out," Shibuya-san commands.

"Noru, that's―"

"Get out," Shibuya-san says firmly.

"Alright, alright. I'm going." Jin/Gene suspires, and then his eyes suddenly lights up at me before returning to Shibuya-san and glinting slyly. "Oh...I see. Sorry to intrude upon you two..."

I redden, and Shibuya-san shoots him a venomous expression. Gene, sweat-dropping, utters, "Okay, okay! I'm going."

Shibuya-san just smirks. "Leave your mask while you're at it."

"Wha―why?" Jin/Gene lours, half-way to the shoji door. "You know I can't leave without it. Where's yours, anyway?"

"She broke it." Shibuya-san points at me with his head.

"Ah..." Jin/Gene shows a thoughtful look and then smiles once more━making me flush into crimson involuntarily. "I guess it can't be helped. You were probably scared of Noru, that's why."

I incline my head absent-mindedly.

At times like these, I usually go unresponsive. But, I think I'm too dumbfounded to monitor what I'm doing and to plan what I shall do.

"Gene," Shibuya-san calls impatiently.

"Hmm?"

"Get out."

"Okay, okay! I'm going now!"

He tosses his mask to Shibuya-san (who catches it effortlessly) and then left while winking and saying to me, "Be gentle on Noru, okay?"

"Jin," I hear Shibuya-san growl adorably; it is a different growl in comparison to other growls I usually hear from the men around me...It seems like a...puppy's first attempt at anger...

Jin just chuckles as he shuts the door on his way out.

When Jin's shadow on the wall vanishes from sight, I say solemnly while bowing again to Shibuya-san, "For my inexperience, you may do anything you wish to me. I shall bear your punishment."

Shibuya-san narrows his eyes at me as I peek at him expectantly.

"I won't do anything to you."

My eyes broaden...

It is an astounding ethereal sensation. I feel...prized...precious...and seemingly, supposedly untouchable. I do not feel insulted at all.

It is a gentle assurance. Those words sound so insular to me. All my life here in Orihime, what I always hear from men are about thousands of things they can do to women.

There never was a man who said he won't do anything, and I had thought gentlemanliness is impossible.

But this certain young man has proved me otherwise.

Voicelessness soon swallows us. My insides squirming at the awkwardness, I ogle at the shattered mask on the floor.

_What now?_

The whimpers and moans from the other rooms are reverberating on the walls, and I want to run away from this place immediately.

I have always wanted to run away, actually.

But, like the string of a bow, I'm always thrown back―unable to escape from where I am bound.

_Should I go to the Missus and tell her that the client doesn't want anything from me?_

But then, she'll probably wallop me back to this room and make me provoke the customer to touch me. She'll probably hiss at me for my ineptness and lack of persuasion. She'll probably make me do anything except nothing.

_"She's the dream seer Rin told me about," Shibuya-san had elucidated..._

_What...did he mean by that? Who's Rin...?_

_What am I supposed to do?_

I don't know what to do with this first client of mine who just stands a few steps away and scrutinizes me wordlessly.

Trying to divert my attention from his scrutiny, I glimpse at the shoji door: my only escape. The shoji doors and walls of Orihime are beautiful and excellent distractions. They are hand-painted, and the designs are different for each room. The designs usually depict scenery from all over the country━some with imaginative additions. In the room we're in, the shoji doors and walls illustrate a pale blue sky with few mist-like clouds, and a bird, red and orange in hue, seemingly engulfed in flames can be seen hurtling upwards; its wings spread out majestically as though it threatens to consume the painted sky in flames.

As I look at the scorching bird, I remember the question I asked one peddler during my wanderer days.

When I was a child, I'd listlessly stayed at the side of the streets. To erase my boredom, I'd decided to observe the people around me in every town I resided for a while. There's this particular peddler who sells mochi and has a caged small bird, which has feathers of blue, yellow, and very pale brown. The bird acted like a time watcher and aide of sorts. If there's a buyer and the seller was sleeping, the bird would come up with an ear-splitting screech. If it's time to eat for the noon, some counted chirps could be heard from the bird. If it's time to go home, the bird would tap its cage with its beak in a random tune.

The peculiarity of the bird intrigued me, and one day I neared the peddler and inquired.

"_Doesn't your bird yearn to fly?" I'd queried intrusively._

The peddler glared at me. I was very filthy and ragged at that time, so he probably mistook me for a bird or mochi thief. He shouted for me to get out of his sight and said that what his bird yearns was not my business.

I can recall that I'd retorted about how irresponsible the peddler was and how he'd been denying his bird the chance to stretch and use its wings.

I had always thought of his treatment as animal abuse, so as the peddler tried to shoo me away with a stick he used to skewer his mochi sometimes, I opened the cage and freed his small bluish bird.

And without even circling back to the peddler, it flew straight to the sky.

It must have been tired of its life in the cage...of helping the peddler ever since its capture.

_It must have been bored too._

The nerve of me when I was still a child...

Feeling serenity embrace me with such a memory, I avert my eyes from the burning bird on the shoji wall.

Just then, I...

My head thinks fast, and I abruptly stand up and near Shibuya-san. Next, I pull the front of his kimono and briskly position the two of us at the end of the futon which was lain for us on the tatami mats.

And then, I tug him down with me on the futon.

He is evidently bewildered at my swiftness and brazenness; I wasn't moving until a few moments later after all. He tries to sit up, but I heave him down over me again through the front of his kimono.

"What are you―?" he wonders as he hovers over me, pins me on the futon―he probably instinctively made his hands soften his fall―and furrows his eyebrows at me in confusion.

My cheeks pinkening, I interrupt him. But, I pierce him with an intense gaze as I say, **"**_**Please take advantage of me**_."

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If he's an opportunist, he will have pounced on me already after what I just requested.

But he isn't, so he remains frozen on top of me.

He's a pensive one, by the looks of it. He does not redden or stimulate just like any easily heated men out there. His composure, as he absorbs what I just said, exudes that he deals situations scrupulously and rationally.

He's not impulsive at all. He doesn't just promptly devour the meat given to him.

He peers at me, and I feel as if he is trying to see through me: the objectives of and benefits from my demand. But, I guess he found none since he just lours on top of me.

"I already told you I won't―"

"Then please do me a favor, and act like you are doing what you said you won't," I intervene eagerly.

Eyes clearly amused, he lifts his eyebrow. "Why?"

His breath on my face smells like mint; it's cool and refreshing.

"The Missus is checking on us. I just saw her silhouette outside our room," I respond, sensing a strange heat on my cheeks.

He looks more comely up close―such a waste to be here spending his time on spoiled women. With their looks, he and his twin won't fail on finding a respectable lady someday.

_His search should never include this place..._

Not that he'll certainly choose someone from Yoshiwara. He has the picky look on him, somehow...

"What will happen if I will decline to do you a favor?"

Ah...

So he's one of those tricky men who ask too many questions when only a confirmation is needed. A doubter, I must say.

Exhausted physically because of weight monsters and mentally because of mind-raveling people, I roll my eyes and sough. My boldness has come into full force now.

"I don't know what Missus will do to me, but I know that she'll be very displeased that a customer _**isn't**_ _**touching me**_, especially _**during my initiation**_. Because _**not touching me**_ exactly _**beats the purpose**_ of me being here in the room with you, Shibuya-san. Although _**I don't mind doing nothing**_, it's very likely that you won't be able to enter this place ever again."

I tend to babble when I'm really tired, and this is one of the occasions wherein my mouth won't give it a rest and does the job for me instead.

However, I guess my explanation flicked something in him since he gazes at me thoroughly and profoundly that I almost held my breath.

"I see," he speaks finally, probably relenting, and shrugs. "What do you want me to do?"

It seems like our roles have switched.

Quietly grateful at his cooperativeness in all of this, I smile at him for the first time (the first genuine one I've borne throughout my stay in Orihime).

Then, noticing the door to our room soundlessly opening, I pull him nearer so that my lips are near his left ear.

"_**Please take off my clothes**_," I whisper boldly.

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"Ah...that feels good," I murmur as I knead my neck and shoulders.

Wearing only my thick black nagajuban now, I feel so light and springy.

_Weight monsters gone, gone, gone, yatta~_

The Missus left satisfactorily―probably after seeing Shibuya-san doffing my overgarments and hair ornaments (I've instructed him to pitch them on the floor in brash emphasis).

I beam at Shibuya-san who ogles and smirks at me with fascination as we sit in front of each other on the futon.

He is extremely helpful. I'm warming up to him even though I'd planned to be totally nonchalant to all my clients.

I bow slightly. "Thank you for taking off my burden, Shibuya-san."

He just jounces his head and inquires, "You wear heavy things like these everyday?"

I joggle my head. "This is just my second time wearing it."

_Once as a substitute oiran at a promenade and today to commence my oiran-becoming..._

Contemplating about something I don't know, he becomes still.

"About what you said earlier," I start slowly, "what do you mean that I'm a _**dream seer**_? What is that exactly? And who's this Rin who knows me...?"

All of it is so novel to me, but this encounter has a refreshing feeling to it. My life in Orihime all these years is very reiterative. I get up, eat, cleanse, attend to my Elder Sister's needs, and sleep everyday. It is only when I was dubbed as an oiran by the clientele that there came a change in the rote. Nevertheless, time will come, and it will become a boring daily rote again.

Meeting strangers like this moment is also a change in my drudgery. But, this certain stranger before me is very variant from those men I saw my Elder Sister entertain during my attendant years that I can't help but be so riveted.

Shibuya-san has somehow insinuated that he was seeking for me. But...

_What else can I give besides the usual services of an oiran?_

_What can he even acquire from doing nothing to me yet still paying for me tonight?_

_Is...there a catch somewhere?_

I'm very tickled, and it must have shown in my face since he regards me with disported eyes. Shibuya-san doesn't seem likely to smile, but he can do an amused face even without smiling.

"Rin is my assistant," he informs.

"Rin?" I wonder at the odd sound he pronounces.

"_**L**_in," he drawls and teaches me, "Put the end of your tongue on the roof of your mouth to make the sound."

"Rin. _**L**_in," I try what he suggested, and I form the sound amazingly, although not perfectly as he can.

Ensorcelled at the new learning, I twinkle.

"Are you a foreigner?" I query, captivated.

His eyes are distinctive from the usual men I see...but he looks Japanese...Yet, he can voice out a seemingly selcouth sound...

He smirks once more. "What do you think?"

I pout. He's a sly one, I must say. I guess that's his own way of saying, "Next question, please."

"Never mind..." I purse my lips. "Anyway, what's this dream seer issue all about?"

"You've been having peculiar vivid dreams, haven't you?" he asks, a sharp eyeful settling upon me.

If my mind isn't disrupted, I will have remarked that he keeps on answering my questions with questions. But I am distracted by his query, so I bat my eyes at him in perplexity.

"How did you know?" I study him dubiously and inquisitively.

"Lin heard you telling a shrine priestess," he divulges, "about wailing women in this place."

"That's―" I flutter my eyelids in remembrance.

The shrine priestess...Ayako...is someone I've befriended during my attendant years.

I first met her while looking outside the lattice windows of the display parlor. It was morning, and I was cleaning the windows at that time when she asked for directions. She was the first stranger who talked to me without some form of recognition and prejudice of who I will be later on. She's also the first person I befriended and pleaded to come back from time to time. From then on, I'd been sharing (whispering, actually) my thoughts and nocturnal dreams with her before those red windows.

_So your assistant is a brilliant eavesdropper..._But...

Nonplussed, I survey him. "What does it ha―?"

"You dreamt of the past," he interposes, "of this house's past. That is the ability of a dream seer. Generally, that is."

I gape at him. "I...dreamt of...?"

I blink a lot of times as though I am being dictated in all of this...It's like being told when you've acquired common sense that you're born to be like this or that. He hasn't said it like that, though. But the same shock is still there. All this time...I've been thinking that those vivid dreams are merely realistic nightmares. All this time...

Then, I get it.

_So this is the catch...?_

I squint my eyes at him. "What do you want me to do if I'm a dream seer?"

"You'll be helping me solve the case in this place," he instructs. "I'll be paying you in return."

"Solve a case? In here?" I blink again, puzzled. "What case?"

"A case revolving around the fifth floor of this building."

My eyes expand in recollection. "That's―"

He didn't say anything, but I now grasp the meaning behind his group's name.

"You _**arrest **_ghosts?" I spout, bewildered.

He lifts a corner of his mouth━a probable semblance of a half-smile━as if I said something really fatuous. " '_**Hunt**_' is a more appropriate term to describe my work."

"I see..." The revelations are so overwhelming that I don't know where to start.

_Ghosts...dream seer...case...fifth floor...hunt..._

Everything seems so foreign and new...

And _**exciting**_.

"What's the first thing we'll be doing?" I feel like a child again―the lost child peregrinating the ocean shores like a daring vagabond.

This is a first for me. For once, I am motivated not for survival but for an underlying interest.

If Shibuya-san noticed my eagerness, he didn't comment upon it. But, his eyes gleam at my attentiveness.

"We'll be going to the repository tomorrow."

My eager face falls.

"I can't."

"Why?" He frowns.

"I can't go out here," I say cheerlessly. "They'll―"

I bite my lip.

"They'll what?" he insists.

I demur and then suspire. "They'll tie me up and lock me inside one of the rooms on the fifth floor."

Thereupon, I explicate that, during my attendant years, I'd seen three women trussed and left on the fifth floor due to fleeing Orihime for whatever unpermitted excuse. All of them are never the same again after that; one killed herself, and the other two went crazy, so they were kicked out of Yoshiwara because they weren't functional to work anymore (although they finally got out of this place, I still can't say they were lucky when I saw them again.)

I shiver at the memory of those three disheveled women descending the stairs from the fifth floor. I can educe the dark shades under their eyes and their sunken faces as if time moved so rapidly when they were on the fifth floor━making them look ill-fed and twice their ages. Their eyes are empty like soulless creatures, and they tread the hallways desultorily.

The fifth floor is basically not ventured since Missus herself announced it as haunted and abandoned it starting from a time already forgotten. Orihime has eight floors, so we use a rope hoist, instead of stairs, that can hold at least two people when wending from sixth to the eight floor.

"You can't go out even if I'll pay you?" He arches his eyebrow.

He must have thought the thrills of money acquisition is inviting for me.

It is my turn to smile again. "It's the Missus' forethought for maintaining her profits, but it's a generally accepted rule in Yoshiwara actually. Unless you ask and pay my hand for marriage, I can't go out with you. But I don't think you'll do that, will you?"

He doesn't sound―just an emotionless and faraway look.

I smile knowingly and saucily. "I could tell."

_I'm not really that lucky anyway._

I doubt I'll ever see this young man again after tonight; even if I can help him, he'll probably find another dream seer who's _**freer**_.

I yawn.

It's still early in the evening, but I haven't slept well last night because of Missus' lecture on what I should do on my initiation and an untimely physician visit in the middle of the night. Now that I'm starting to feel droopy, I'll probably wake up tomorrow and think of everything that's been going on tonight as just a dream and this fine gentleman in front of me as a mere fantasy.

"I'm sleepy..." I mutter and peek at Shibuya-san sleepily. "Since we're not doing anything, can I sleep now? You can tell the clerks below that nothing happened between us and that you're getting your money back...It doesn't matter anymore...The physician will know you're telling the truth anyway..."

Worn out, I flop down on the futon before I can even hear a reply.

_Tomorrow...will be cloudless._

**XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~**

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><p><em><strong>I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,<br>When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,  
>When he beats his bars and would be free;<br>It is not a carol of joy or glee,  
>But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,<br>But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings – **_

_**I know why the caged bird sings.**_

_**~from a poem entitled 'Sympathy' by Paul Laurence Dunbar~**_

**XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~**

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><p><strong>AN: Thanks for those who've read and reviewed last chapter! :) I'm glad you've enjoyed last chapter *bows gratefully* **


	3. Third Cloud

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ghost Hunt characters. Even though I'm using facts, explanations that cannot be found in any reference come from my own cognition.

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><p><strong>AN: Edited! ^^**

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><p><strong>Terms beforehand<strong>;

**ofuro**=bath

**tenugui**=a towel with a lot of uses

**yukata**= summer kimono, but was used as the usual kimono donned after bath

**Seppuku**=ritual suicide usually done by samurais either as punishment or for honor

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><p><strong>Review<strong>

I yawn.

It's still early in the evening, but I haven't slept well last night because of Missus' lecture on what I should do on my initiation and an untimely physician visit in the middle of the night. Now that I'm starting to feel droopy, I'll probably wake up tomorrow and think of everything that's been going on tonight as just a dream and this fine gentleman in front of me as a mere fantasy.

"I'm sleepy..." I mutter and peek at Shibuya-san sleepily. "Since we're not doing anything, can I sleep now? You can tell the clerks below that nothing happened between us and that you're getting your money back...It doesn't matter anymore...The physician will know you're telling the truth anyway..."

Worn out, I flop down on the futon before I can even hear a reply.

_Tomorrow...will be cloudless._

**End of Review**

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><p><strong>XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~<strong>

I arise, sit upright, and find myself alone as I'd expected.

Beyond the now-opened red wooden lattice window of the room, the sun shines brightly outside. The sakura trees block the view of the town nearby, but I can see through the gaps of its branches as they sway with the wind. Far away, the dried up paddy fields are somehow shimmering. The thatched roofs of numerous huts appear inviting with its protection from sultriness.

The view is cruel and the Missus more so for giving me a room that has a vista outward of Yoshiwara━of the town extraneous the towering walls and gates that seclude the whole pleasure district. The sight gives off a bitter aftertaste, a pang in the stomach, and a lump in my throat. Such longing to go outside just frustrates me more.

But...the mid-morning looks different. I admire the sky past the red windows.

_Yet...it's cloudless..._

_Did I just imagine that, last night, a cloud has become a rung, a step forward to the sky?_

_Did I just suddenly start dreaming of attaining the unreachable sky because of a stranger?_

_Did 'last night' even occur? Does such a stranger exist? Or could I have been simply dreaming?_

But if I have been dreaming..._Why am I in one of the pleasure rooms?_

I swish my head around and confirm Shibuya-san's absence.

_Is he just my dream's figment? A manifestation of my wishful thinking? A guardian angel appearing in dreams to satisfy my hope that someone exists to save me from this hell of a place?_

I feel despicable. _When did I start to rely on someone to take me out of here? How could I be so pathetic to depend on someone, a figment of a dream or whoever, to give me freedom?_

I have long ago sworn to myself that I will get out of this place by my own strength, even if it looks impossible. But...hopelessness makes me lazy and exhausted.

_Even if I've sworn to myself about escaping...the times are hard, and thoughts change._

I've stopped dreaming about scaping ever since Kami-knows-when.

_So why dream of escaping again right now? Why dream of a stranger who offers me some key to freedom? It doesn't make any sense..._

I sigh and hang my head low.

It is balmy of me, but the interloper who appeared in my repose or whatever vivifies the dying hope within me. If it was another vivid dream, it is quite the tempting one. Every part of my soul wants to lunge towards and spring out the window and dash through the streets out-of-doors━going as far away as another country if possible.

But that scheme isn't really plausible for any human, especially from the seventh floor. If I can fall with ease from a window, a breezy landing doesn't really follow―and I don't think it'll even be called landing (but rather a crash instead).

An instant suicide isn't really my idea of a great escapade from this mundane-type of perdition.

My orbs drift upon the floor, and what I spot makes me rethink, reorganize, and redivide my real mind's eye from the mere bubbles.

Splintered and unswept, the mask...The mask of Shibuya-san remains on the floor.

Ample elation washes over me in entirety. It's as if the broken demon mask transfers some residual energy to me...

An energy to break free...

I pick upon then...that I've never really acted rebellious. My mind is rebellious, but the rebellion only stays in my mind. I've...never really done anything to get what I want...I've never tried at all.

But then what?

If I get out of Orihime, where will I even go? Who will even take me in? How can I even survive?

I may be able to find a job. But then what?

That's it?

My life is just about emancipating, obtaining a job I'll at least be satisfied and not revolted of, and being extant through it?

That's the only thing I want to get out of in this life?

It sounds so empty, lacking, and uninteresting.

_If it's going to be just like that then, am I not just doing the same thing through working in Orihime?_

_Is my life merely one of survival and nothing more?_

_What composes an unreachable sky exactly?_

_**What is my unreachable sky?**_

_How can I get there?_

The broken mask is like a proof that there's something I can do rather than strive for survival.

"Dream seer..." I susurrate what Shibuya-san called me.

Before long, I perpend about what ensued yesternight and apprehend that it's preposterous to live differently.

_That young man won't ever come back...I...rejected his offer after all...He'll probably find some other girl who has the ability..._

_Yes, that's possible._

I am very aware right now that it's not because I'm timorous to be enclosed in one of the chambers of the fifth floor that's why I've never tried to run away; it's because _**I've got nowhere else to go**_.

I...have become accustomed to the planned life. I...truthfully find it troublesome to wander again.

_There's something good in being trapped too..._

Security, shelter, clothes, and food: who doesn't want to stay in a place with all of these?

Straightening and stretching my body, I sough.

Now that the supposed 'first' night has passed, another night will come.

So, for the REAL first night, I have to prepare again.

_There'll be no escape this time..._

I inspect the flaming bird on the shoji wall while I reckon, _I'm hungry, and I need to wash..._

I evoke what I quoth to Shibuya-san before knocking into sleep. The Missus may be very angry with me at this time...I just hope she won't fetter me and lock me up in the fifth floor...

I sigh. Nevertheless, it will be my obvious penalty...especially when Shibuya-san may have complained about my rejection and has taken his money back.

_And that nothing happened...Missus will be giving me hell today..._

I sigh again.

A knock on the shoji door interjects my morose thoughts. Before I can speak, the shoji door slides open and in comes the bane of my existence.

_Kami-sama, oh please help me!_

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><p><strong>XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~<strong>

"You're awake," Missus remarks and watches me disdainfully. "And still nearly wholly dressed, I see."

_She knows...She knows that nothing happened..._

Missus views me disapprovingly, and I gulp as she slits her eyes at me.

I wait silently for her next venomous words, and I'm not disappointed.

"It's indescribable how your first customer could praise you to such an extent." She scowls and presses her lips together. "Of all people, the masked wolf at that! There I was thinking you'll fail smoothly, but it seems like I underestimated you. I expect numerous customers will also personally tell me good things about you in the future."

Stupefied, I blink at her.

_What did she just say?_

_Shibuya-san...praised me?_

_WHAT?_

If Missus isn't in the room with me, I may have let my jaw drop. But she is, so instead I bite my lip.

_Why...did Shibuya-san do that?_

_How could he spend his money on me without even really benefiting from it?_

Again, my view of men has altered. Not only does gentlemanliness exist, inexplicable kindness too...

_It's really unbelievable._

"Sora!" Missus calls, and I whirl to her straightaway in curiosity.

She grimaces at me. "It seems like your temporary success is already getting in your head."

Restraining a retort, I nibble my lip. If I don't know I'll be punished if I hiss my animosity for her, I will be shouting my throat out.

After some bitter muteness, Missus suspires and huffs at me.

"I don't know what to do with you." She glowers. "But, it is a reality that your first customer enjoyed your company. Get dressed. Your meal is already prepared downstairs. Afterwards, cleanse yourself properly. You're already reserved for three people tonight."

I clamp my mouth shut to prevent myself from gaping at her. I just bob speechlessly, and Missus departs unconcernedly.

At first, soundlessness pervades the bedchamber. Next, the meaning of her words smacks me in the face, and it dawns on me.

_I won't be able to withdraw again._

If Shibuya-san did not touch me yesterday, the Kamis most likely have something worst in store for me tonight. Yesternight was just water's boiling━some sort of ruse to deceive oneself that everything will be fine and that not everything is as gloomy as it seems.

Tonight will be the brewing of the storm.

And if I'll be lucky enough to handle the waves, there's still mercy for me then.

_So...the cloud does not comprise the staircase towards the sky. It comprises the storm that eludes from it._

I suspire and notice the shattered mask on the floor once more.

_She didn't see it, did she...?_

I stare at the mask until as if it's blushing because of my scrutiny.

_I should sweep it off the floor, _I think circumspectly...

And maybe I'll keep some of it in my flowery cloth pouch for luck.

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><p><strong>XDXDXDXD~nya~<strong>

I ogle callously as the other oirans squat outside the ofuro with their cute attendants scrubbing their backs. I just finished scrubbing my own, washed with plum and sakura ashes, and sunk in the warm-water filled bath.

The other oirans have been glaring at me intimidatingly ever since I entered. I guess I made them more frustrated when I just shrugged off their dagger-filled looks during the midday meal. Everyone has most likely already heard of my 'success' and the advance reservations made for me, that's why.

Missus has got to be the nastiest garrulous woman in the world.

Although, competition is really unavoidable when everyone is trying to survive. And when you're an oiran, you need all the guts there is to last longer. I need the unwavering spunk all the time, and it's quite tiresome retaining it.

I sigh.

They probably think I'm getting so full of myself by telling Missus that I don't need attendants now that I became an 'oiran'━what really happened with Shibuya-san is still unknown to them.

Truthfully, I just don't want to have something to be very guilty about. You see, if I will have an attendant, the cute girl will be following my every move, observing whatever comes out of my mouth, and emulating every word and action of mine later on. For sure, the little girl will meet her destruction because of me. I don't want that. The other oirans may think that their position is something to be proud of, and such arrogance is unwittingly passed on to those cute attendants of theirs.

I don't want to do that.

If anything, being an oiran has proved to be a job of suffering. It's not a job to be proud of. Those cute attendants ought to become anything but an oiran. They ought to be following their own...dreams━not the dreams dictated to them.

_But then, who am I really to say that, right, Kami-sama?_

We're all actually snared now, so I can't blame all of them━oirans and attendants alike━for taking a bite and wishing for more of only one bad apple━the only prize almost everyone, who has lived to become an oiran or whatever in Yoshiwara, has always dreamed of sinking one's teeth into.

_And...I chose to be beguiled too._

However, I do not want to snag somebody else with my way of life. It will make me so contrite knowing that someone has become a reflection of me...

So, I will rather scrub my own back than ruin a little girl's character.

After gazing at nothing and making bubbles in the water with my mouth, I finally straighten and get out of the bath━thereafter patting my body with my tenugui and covering myself with my newly cleaned nagajuban and dark blue yukata.

It's already noon when I roused. It seems like I came to my senses only after Shibuya-san spoke to Missus about me.

The mid-afternoon sun continuously incinerates the people outside while the cloudless sky has become paler than ever. It's still early, but I need to prepare already for my first client of the day.

Usually, new and veteran oirans only have two customers at most everyday.

_To have three...is naturally pushing it..._

I sough and traipse to my new chamber on the ground floor. It's smaller than other rooms and quite old-looking and unkempt, yet I don't really mind. It somehow...mirrors my unfurnished meager life.

The papers on my shoji doors and walls are torn. The tatami mat where I lay my futon is worn and sooty. The paint on the ceiling is flaked off. Only a lacquered dresser drawer and a persimmon-tree-painted folding screen are new and quite out-of place in the room.

I breathe in the the musky fragrance. It's not pleasant, but it's what I'll have now.

A knock echoes in the room, and I jerk my head to my dressing attendant for the day.

And I'm facing the weight monsters once again.

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><p><strong>XDXDXD~nya~<strong>

As hateful as what the Missus had instructed was, I obliged; I undressed from the very heavy and time-consuming oiran ensemble and lain down on the futon very bare like a fish with its scales taken off━some kind of food display and preparation before cooking.

When the Missus had already seen me doing what she had instructed, she finally left. Only when the Missus was out of earshot did I sit upright, take the coverlet, and conceal myself with it.

It's not cold; it's already summer. But being bare like this makes me feel so less of a person and more like a pig in a stockyard.

I hate it.

But if there's a way out of all of this...if there's a place that will offer me food, shelter, bath, security, AND freedom, I won't even move an inch at Missus' commands.

However, there isn't a place like that. There's no place that'll proffer me something like that without the expense of one of those things I wanted: freedom.

I have most of those things in Orihime but not liberty. I'll have most of those things if I'll get married off to some rich man, but still I'm just transferring my bondage.

So how can I even attain those things without forsaking one of them?

_How can such a simple life be impossible?_

The slamming open of the shoji door interrupts my thoughts, and I goggle at the old man who makes an ingress. By his intrusion, I already feel the dreadfulness of eternal damnation beginning.

I nip my lip and resist scrunching my face in disgust.

_Oh Kami-sama, of all things, why a shabby wrinkled old man in a loincloth as my real first client? Why, why, why?_

"You're set?" The old man seals the door and gives me an titillated toothy grin. "Very good! We're having a blast tonight."

It's not that I did not have a foreshadowing already. Missus had hinted while she ordered me to disrobe that it'll make things easier for the customer. I had a foreboding sense of what she meant, but every fiber of my being just shirked it.

_Oh my Kami-sama, the loincloth wolf is nearing me! Eeeekkkkk!_

Everything in me is shrieking in panic. Appalled and nonknowledgeable of what to do, I freeze on the futon.

Because...I know...THIS is going to be the reality I'll be facing over and over again.

Not caring anymore if Missus will punish me for being gutless, I bow my head and close my eyes. I grip tighter on the bedcloth covering me from my toes to my chest.

_I hate this! I really, really hate this!_

_Why won't someone care?_

Just when I am thinking of committing something similar to seppuku, the door slams open again.

And there, to my greatest relief, stands a panting demon-masked stranger I had the heavenly fortune to meet.

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><p><strong>XDXDXDXDXD~nya~<strong>

It has taken some time for us to gather our thoughts and speak, so we just regard one another in utter voicelessness.

Soon enough...

"What are you doing here? Get out! This room is reserved for me and this fresh girl!" the old man shouts at my disguised 'savior.'

I feel like puking, honestly.

The shrouded samurai straightens, finally eases and halts his panting because of running, and then says coolly in his harmonious voice, "I'm here because she's reserved for me, of course. You're the one who should vacate."

My glimmering hope tosses a rather bulky pouch that has this clinking sound when it dropped a few steps in front of the old man.

"Your money's back. So leave." I can hear a smirk behind the mask.

The old man fumes. "You insolent brat! This is my reservation, and you have no right to take it away from me! I reserved her for the week!"

Determined to oppose the hidden Shibuya-san, the senior points at me so covetously.

But Shibuya-san is unshakable. "She's not reserved for you anymore, and she's not going to be reserved to anyone in the future. You reserved her for a week, but I _**reserved her for eternity**_."

I cannot help but gape at my dazzling sun.

_He's going to━?_

"Foolish brat, you cannot━!"

"Yes, I can." There was another smirk, and then Shibuya-san calls, "You clerks out there, take this old man away."

The clerks come rushing to the room and haul the disbelieving old man off; the latter is soon thrashing (quite robust for his age) and shouting curses to Shibuya-san as the former is dragged out in his horrifying loincloth. Shortly, Shibuya-san fully slips in the bedroom and closes the door━at least blocking the old man's yells a bit.

My clutch on the blanket loosens, and I just perdure to hold it over my body right now━all the tension seeping out.

I take a deep breath and suspire. I can feel the spine-tingling cold sweat I haven't noticed forming on my uncovered back. The feeling of it running down my spine is chilling...but...

The presence of Shibuya-san gives me such an inexplicable warmth I never thought existed.

I feel that I do not need to be naked physically for Shibuya-san to see me completely; he can already see through my guise. Perhaps, it's some masked-people-discovering-other-masked-people kind of thing...

I look up at his concealed face as he approaches me beside the futon I'm in.

"Did he touch you?" He squints his eyes under his front in such incomprehensible expression.

There is concern in his voice━something I've never heard and felt from men before.

I shake my head; words of gratitude are sticking in my throat. Then, I suddenly do what I've never done in front of men or anyone before; **I cry**.

Because truthfully, I am very scared. I am trying to be tough and strong, unconcerned that my dignity will be stripped off.

But that is all pretense.

_**I am truly sensitive. I am weak and helpless. I am not the young woman whom I act I am. I am never indomitable.**_

_How can this stranger care for someone like me?_

_How can he care when no one usually does?_

_How can he fill me up with emotions and make me reveal myself to him so unguardedly?_

_What kind of talent does he possess?_

All the wonders of this fine young man before me creates an overwhelming emotion to be with him. He's like a safe haven, a peculiarity I need so much in this bleak and plain habitual life. I'm aware now that I've longed for someone to care━for someone to take me out of this ill-natured place.

That must have been why my eyes look unreachable; I've been dreaming of a faraway place where I belong and where I can be free━a place that I can call _**home**_.

_**That...is my unreachable sky.**_

Finally decisive, Shibuyasan shucks his black haori and gently drapes it over my bare back. It is the sweetest thing someone has ever done. All the men I've seen, heard, and known will rather leave women undressed than cover them.

He doesn't speak nor offers me anything. He keeps his silence and lets me cry for a long while. He seems helpless and...hesitant to give me comfort━probably in case he might make me feel worse than ever.

Soon, after about an hour or so, I become tired and puffy and sucked dry. I wipe my tears with my backhands━being a very messy and shattered girl as contrary to how I should act.

A person who doesn't put in effort to comfort me...somehow gives me comfort. All the men I know...they waste their energy for quite selfish goals...for ulterior motives. But the person in front of me now shows the sentiment of effort without even doing anything...just so...I won't be wronged.

_How sweet and kind can this person become?_

_Why...is he so different?_

But then...I know it: _**He is a rung closer to my unreachable sky. **_But, stepping on him...relying on him to possess it...I need to build my strength to make the huge step. And so I've decided...

To step on the rung in front of me.

"You're good," I praise him with a jounce of my head, and then I smile genuinely, tearfully, and knowingly. "You're actually very good at pretending to be the '_**other Shibuya-san**_.' "

**XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~**

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><p><strong>AN: Surprised? Heehee ^^ What do you think did he mean by '_reserved her for eternity_'? See you next chapter! How was this chap? You may share your thoughts ^^**


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